


ICU

by veramoray



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Akko is sad... Diana helps, Blushing idiots, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, on god we gonna get u a therapist bro, the girls are BONDING!!!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:35:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26166478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veramoray/pseuds/veramoray
Summary: Dianakko Week Day 5: Hurt/ComfortAkko seeks out the tower at Luna Nova, hoping for a moment of quiet isolation, but Diana stumbles upon her there after curfew.
Relationships: Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 8
Kudos: 89





	ICU

**Author's Note:**

> i'm back >:-) this is kind of my first actually angsty thing i've written for diakko? i usually only write fluff sjdfhjf.
> 
> warning: i wrote this in second person, so pay attention to perspective changes! they're labeled, don't worry. the prologue of one of my favorite books is written this way and i just wanted to try it out! a little experiment for diakko week... 
> 
> timeline-wise, this takes place early season one!!!

> **“** Do you notice where I stand?
> 
> Can you feel me take your hand?
> 
> I wish I had more to do
> 
> I'm so lonely for you **”**
> 
> _—Lonely For You,_ Georgia Greene

* * *

**AKKO**

* * *

This has been the absolute _worst_ Friday in existence. Fridays are supposed to be fun... filled with laughter and joy and times spent with friends.

They aren’t always so bad, really—at your old school, the track team would meet every Friday in the late afternoon when the day had only just begun to grow chilly and the crickets would sing in the bushes. On Fridays, running with your friends through the well-worn forest trail... that was the last time you remember feeling genuinely good at something.

You miss the smell of the rich earth beneath your feet. You even miss the stinging scent of tarmac when practicing hurdles... 

In that moment, it’s not an unfamiliar thing to find yourself aching for your friends back home in a way you’ve never ached for anything before. You don’t have many friends there, but enough to be able to wish for them in this strange and unforgiving place.

Sighing, you stare up at the tower before you—wishing with everything that you knew how to fly before resigning to take the stairs all the way up, too exhausted to attempt any sort of transportation spell you’re sure you could find in some old corner of the library. At least it will give you some space, and time to be alone with your thoughts. 

* * *

“Akko.”

You freeze, hearing the stern but familiar tone.

“Akko, it’s past curfew. You should be in your room.”

Almost immediately, you feel the blood boiling beneath your skin—anger from feeling upset, from missing your home, and now from being interrupted and chastised when all you want is to have a single moment to yourself.

“Leave me alone, Diana. Please.” 

You can’t keep the sadness from your voice, and it makes you cringe. Like you really need to look even more pitiful in front of Diana of all people... Oh, you are _so_ going to get it tomorrow—more fuel for her followers to use against you.

The metal beneath you rings with each step as she treads hesitantly up to the platform. “Is... everything alright?”

You scoff at the question. “Like you care.”

“We may be in disagreement over a number of things,” Diana says. “But still, it disturbs me to see you unwell.”

You feel the vibrations of her steps nearing the edge, and when the tips of her shoes come into view you turn your face away. You don’t want her to see the stains on your cheeks.

“May I sit?”

You shrug helplessly. You’re not in the mood for a fight right now.

Her skirt flutters in the wind as she crouches down, scooting up so that her feet dangle just like yours over the edge. The metal of the platform is cold under your hands, and your cheeks feel clammy from crying.

The day is almost gone—the sun only barely peeks over the tops of tall, dark trees in the distance. Diana finally settles beside you with a sigh, and you make the mistake of looking over at her, drawn by the sound.

It’s the end of the day and her hair isn’t as perfect as it usually is. Only a bit tousled, probably tossed by the wind on the way over. This close, you can see a light dusting of pale freckles across her nose and cheeks, noting that something so common should be out of place on a face like hers, but it only serves to make her prettier.

Right now you really don’t want to think of how pretty Diana is, so you turn your face away quickly. 

But not quick enough.

“You’ve been crying,” she observes. “What’s wrong?”

Doubting that Diana wants to hear all about your exceedingly uneventful life before Luna Nova—and you really don’t want to talk about it to Diana of all people—you prepare yourself to brush it off, not wanting to dwell any more on the negative emotions.

But... something compels you to answer her anyway.

Maybe it’s that you haven’t been shown a small kindness like this in so long. Or maybe, it’s the gentle way she speaks to you that weakens your resolve. Whatever it is, it’s extremely inconvenient—you really just want to be alone right now.

“I miss...” you pause to swallow the thickness in your throat. _“Everything.”_

Diana doesn’t say anything, but still you continue. “I didn’t think it would be so hard,” Your hands clench in your lap, holding onto your skirts in a way you’ve never been able to grab hold of anything in your life up to this point. “I had—I had this dream. And I risked _so much_ to come here and chase it. I left my family, my friends, my home... Everything that I knew.” Tears burn behind your eyes, despite your efforts to stop them. “And for what?” you scoff. “I’m terrible at magic, everyone hates me... I can’t even sleep right—it’s too different. And all we ever eat is potatoes! That’s _not_ a properly balanced diet.”

Releasing a frustrated huff, you move your hands to grip at the edge of the platform. Diana is still silent, but her presence beside you is... strangely grounding, you find. Feeling your shoulders sag, you prepare to admit the worst of it—your voice escaping no louder than a whisper.

“I miss... my mom.”

* * *

**DIANA**

* * *

Your breath hitches at the unexpected words that fall from Akko’s lips, desperately sad and carrying a weight you would have never known she was carrying. Akko is always so joyous and hopeful...

You hear a wet sniffle, and look over to see Akko wiping her nose angrily on the sleeve of her jacket.

“Why am I even telling you all of this?” She asks. “I don’t even—“

“I miss my mother, too,” you say, but not of your own volition.

You’re not sure what prompted you to say it—to be so open and vulnerable in front of her, someone you’ve been trying so hard to stay ahead of. Why would you give her this one reason to think of you as anything but Diana Cavendish, brightest witch of the age? 

But the stupefied expression on her face lends you more to the belief that right now, she’s not looking for any weaknesses to exploit. 

She’s just a girl, hurting in the same way you have been for years.

* * *

**AKKO**

* * *

Something in Diana’s tone convinces you it isn’t simple homesickness that taints her voice with quiet grief—her mother has been long gone, you’re sure of it. Still, the selfish, hesitant question creeps its way into your mind, falling from your lips without your permission. “What happened?”

Diana sighs, a look on her face that says she’s recounted the story too many times to count. It almost makes you feel bad for even asking.

“She died when I was very young,” Diana says finally. “I don’t remember all that much, but... it’s enough to miss her.“

“Oh,” you mutter awkwardly, because you aren’t sure what else to say. You’ve never been good at this sort of thing.

* * *

**DIANA**

* * *

The air is tense, but you find odd comfort in Akko’s presence. You hadn’t imagined before she would have been dealing with a burden so heavy, with the way she carries herself. It was... disconcerting to see her this way.

“I’m sorry,” you apologize. “I didn’t mean to direct the conversation away from your troubles.”

“I-It’s alright,” Akko says, and you can tell there’s something else she wants to mention. “Why are you doing this, Diana? I thought you hated me...”

A frown tugs at your lips. “I don’t hate you, Akko,” you say, and it’s the truth. 

Although you aren’t really sure _what_ you feel for Akko, it’s certainly not hate. Maybe exasperation, and some irritation when you wish she would be more serious instead of playing around and not listening during class. Or when she whines and complains, when a spell doesn’t go her way the first time around. 

The corner of your mouth twitches upwards at the memory of her pout from earlier in Lukić’s class—but Akko must have mistaken it for something else, because her face immediately drops into a scowl.

“Well, then what _do_ you think of me, Diana?" she challenges. "Because it’s a complete mystery to me.”

Although nothing about this is particularly funny, you find yourself grinning. “I think you are very...”

“What?”

“Petulant, sometimes. Like a child.”

Akko guffaws.

“Forgive me,” you say, with that undeniable smile. “Perhaps I have misjudged you... it is only that I constantly see you performing spells as if you expect them to work—the first time, without any proper magical training or knowledge,” you explain, shaking your head. “For someone who has had to work very hard to be where I am... it bothered me. How could anyone expect to cast advanced spells without any training? Without the years of difficult work I’ve had to endure myself...”

“And then I saw you with the Shiny Rod. And it... _worked,"_ you breathe. How many years had you searched for them yourself? The Words... spoken so clumsily from Akko’s mouth, yet they had worked perfectly in execution. “It made me... upset. Confused.”

With how long you had labored and searched for them... _Yearned_ to connect with them in the way she now does. How were you supposed to feel? To be so close to a dream, only to have it ripped away by someone else.

This must be how Akko feels every day—belittled by her peers, and constantly challenged and criticized by her teachers without any offerings of guidance. It really isn’t fair.

“Now that I know this,” you continue. “Maybe it’s more that you’ve risked so much you can’t afford for it not to work. If you can’t achieve your dream... then what was all of this for?” Leaning back on your arms, your eyes magnetically find their way back to hers. 

Surprised, you find she’s staring right back at you too.

And you don’t feel very much like Diana Cavendish under her gaze... the layers are stripped away before her eyes, and beneath is just a girl. A girl who does not know who she really is, or what she really wants.

And in the silence, you notice that behind Akko’s eyes lies that very same girl.

* * *

**AKKO**

* * *

“I understand,” Diana says, and the way she’s looking at you makes your insides squirm.

It feels strange, and you want to look away. But... it also feels... good. She stares at you like she knows a part of you, and it’s odd but not unwelcome, to be at least in some way fully known and understood. To share in the pain, although it is not entirely the same kind, but still a comfort to know you aren’t alone.

A feather-light touch at your fingers startles you, and your breath hitches, as Diana carefully lays her hand upon yours.

Staring at her fingers, slightly longer than yours, her immaculate nails juxtaposed against your bitten and mangled ones—you realize, Diana is kind. Perhaps you’ve always known, but through a curtain of stubbornness refused to acknowledge. She’s always been kind, in her own way, trying to get you to see reason even though it wasn’t what you wanted to hear.

But this is a different, softer compassion you haven’t seen from her before. It makes your stomach flutter and your face warm. Almost immediately, you decide that you hate it.

Taking a deep breath, your mouth opens as if to speak, but all possible words and combinations have abandoned you in this moment. Struggling, there is nowhere to rest your eyes that doesn’t cause odd feelings to stir in your chest, except to look forward—to the line of dark trees, and the pink sky behind them. The sun is nowhere in sight, but still its light reaches out, bending around the earth to touch the clouds and sky.

“Thank you,” the words escape you in a breath. Shyly you look to her, and she offers a small smile. You don’t like the sadness that you find in it, but it will do for now. This will do.

Eventually the air grows cold at the top of the tower. It is between shivering breaths that Diana asks if she can help you down, and together you climb quietly onto her broom. There is something undeniable in the sensation as soon as the broom leaves the platform, magic coursing through the wood, that swooping feeling in your stomach—

The same one you get when Diana looks back at you, telling you to hold on tight.

You don’t mind following her instructions... just this once. 

Slowly you wrap your arms more securely around her as the smell of her hair and the breeze washes over your face. The chill of the evening nips at your cheeks and nose, drawing wind tears from your eyes, but it can’t find its way inside with how closely you are pressed together. Luna Nova soon becomes clearer in the distance, and then Diana is stopping at your dorm and you are dismounting clumsily from the broom.

She leaves with a final goodbye, and an invitation for the future—if help was needed, she adds hastily, blushing to her ears. But surely, it’s just from the night air, you decide. The same shade of red as yours likely are.

When Diana is gone, the tumbling feeling in your gut subsides, but the warmth doesn’t leave you for days.

**Author's Note:**

> do you ever feel... like a plastic bag... 
> 
> man, we need to get these kids some therapy huh!!!! anyway, thanks for reading ^3^ also pls listen to lonely for you, it breaks my heart each time...


End file.
